BEHIND THE SLAM – MY STORY
By Michael Weaver, Jr. [E-Mail | Facebook | Instagram | Website | X]
September 26, 2023
Welcome to Behind The Slam. My name is Michael Weaver, Jr. and I am the owner of WU Online. I thought since today is my 45th birthday, I would write the first column of Behind The Slam and tell you the history behind myself and my love for professional wrestling.
One of the first things you’ll notice about WU Online is that it isn’t the typical website dedicated to pro-wrestling. For an example, the biggest difference you’ll notice about WU Online is that I don’t have a typical “news” section. The reason for this is because I am disabled. Without going into too much about my health issues, I suffer from chronic pain. Due to this fact, I am unable to constantly post news items.
Something else you’ll notice about WU Online is that I don’t publish rumors. I refuse to be apart of a system that gets off on “Hey listen to this crazy rumor that may or may not be true and might just screw up somebody’s life!” Sorry but I’m not going to be like that.
With all of that said, let me tell you my story.
In 1988, I came home from school and my older sister, Jenny, was sick so she stayed home from school and was watching WWF WrestleMania IV on Coliseum Video. She was watching the Finals of the WWF World Heavyweight Championship Tournament between Randy”Macho Man”Savage [with: Miss Elizabeth] against “Million $ Man” Ted DiBiase [with: “The Eighth Wonder of the World” Andre The Giant]. While I didn’t become an instant fan of pro-wrestling, it definitely peaked my interest. The next time I encountered the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), I instantly fell in love with it. This time, Jenny was in the kitchen watching WWF Wrestling Spotlight while my Mom was cooking supper. The episode was showing the interview with the new WWF World Heavyweight Champion: Randy”Macho Man”Savage and Miss Elizabeth when Andre The Giant and Bobby”The Brain”Heenan distracted him long enough for DiBiase to attack “Macho Man” while Virgil held Elizabeth and forced her to watch the vicious attack.
That was 35 years ago and my love for professional wrestling has never wavered. I attended my first live event on Tuesday, September 13, 1988 at Market Square Arena in Indianapolis, Indiana. It was supposed to be my grandpa, Jenny and myself but during the summer of ’88, my grandpa came down with cancer and in September was unable to take my sister and myself. So instead, it was my Mom who took us. The event was a TV Taping for WWF Superstars of Wrestling. It was at this TV Taping that DiBiase announced that he had purchased Hercules…AS A SLAVE! I still remember the main event of the evening as it was for the World Wrestling Federation World Heavyweight Championship as the WWF World Heavyweight Champion: Randy”Macho Man”Savage, with Miss Elizabeth in his corner, defeated his challenger, Andre The Giant, with Bobby Heenan in his corner, by disqualification when Andre grabbed Elizabeth’s ankle. Even as a little kid I remember thinking how stupid it was that the referee disqualified Andre for simply grabbing her ankle. I remember Savage scooping his manager up in his arms and carrying her to the backstage area as if she had been shot and he needed to get her to the emergency room!
Over the years, I have attended WWF house shows, World Championship Wrestling (WCW) house shows, WWF RAW, WCW Monday Nitro, WCW Thunder, WCW Sin, WWF Survivor Series Showdown, WWF WrestleMania VIII, WWE WrestleMania 22, WWE SummerSlam, WWE The Great American Bash, IMPACT! Wrestling, AEW Dynamite, AEW Rampage, WWE Tribute To The Troops, WWE SmackDown, Squared Circle Expo III and WWF In Your House: Buried Alive. I’ve also attended the WWE 2006 Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony and the press conference for WWE The Great American Bash 2006.
In the late 1990s, I started my own website on the old Geocities hosting company and I named it Wrestling Update. The reason I named it Wrestling Update was in honor of my Grandpa – Gene Horlander, Sr. You see, for a birthday present to my Grandpa in 1988, I made a wrestling “magazine” to give to him so he could catch up on the WWF news he missed while he was in the hospital due to cancer. The name of the “magazine” was Wrestling Update. My Grandpa’s cancer came back again in 1992 and on May 29, 1992 he passed away. So I named my website, Wrestling Update, to pay tribute to my Grandpa.
Last year I renamed the website WU Online and purchased the domain www.WUOnline.net.
Over the years, I’ve been lucky enough to interview some of the biggest names in pro-wrestling. WWE Hall of Famers such as “Sensational” Sherri, Eric Bischoff, “The Ninth Wonder of the World” Chyna and The Road Warriors to name a few.
At this point, I can’t imagine wrestling not in my life. I have boxes of wrestling magazines and VHS tapes to remind me of the great and not-so-great moments in wrestling history. While being disabled has taken so many things away from me, it hasn’t taken professional wrestling away.
I would like to thank some people who have helped me in one way or another regarding professional wrestling and/or my website: my wonderful Mother – Linda McMasters, my stepdad – Rick McMasters, my Grandfather – Gene Horlander, Sr., my sister – Jennifer Deeter, Chris Sabga (Silver Screen Surprises), Gary Davis, Georgiann Makropoulos, Mary Ringwood, Ross Forman, Joel Zietcer and Chuck Kingsbury to name just a few. I would also like to thank Vince McMahon, Eric Bischoff, Tony Khan, Dixie Carter, Jerry Jarrett and all of the promoters who have ran the companies that have given me so many great moments. Finally, I would like to thank every single man and woman who have laced up a pair of boots to entertain me.
I would also like to thank WWE Hall of Famer: Randy”Macho Man”Savage because if it wasn’t for his charisma and wrestling talent I might’ve never fallen in love with this business. It took Savage a long time to be placed in the WWE Hall of Fame and his ex-wife and manager, Miss Elizabeth, still has not been inducted. This is wrong. Elizabeth was a pioneer in wrestling. She showed that she could be a beautiful and popular female manager without having to take off all of her clothes. She deserves her spot in the WWE Hall of Fame.
This concludes the first Behind The Slam column. I hope you enjoyed it.
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